


The weights you drag along (and the ones I carry for you)

by Mamichigo



Category: Marvel, Venom (Movie 2018)
Genre: Agender Venom Symbiote (Marvel), Breakfast, Brief discussion of gender roles, Domestic, Early Mornings, Eddie's sister is mentioned/talked about, Established Relationship, Feelings, Hurt/Comfort, Other, Past Character Death, Talk about the past
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-19
Updated: 2018-12-19
Packaged: 2019-09-22 17:07:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,247
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17063699
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mamichigo/pseuds/Mamichigo
Summary: Christmas had a tendency to to dig up old feelings and old memories, a rising and confusing pile of emotions that Eddie had to sort through to get an enjoyable experience out of the holiday. It's easier to do so, when you have someone with you;(Or: Eddie and Venom talk while sitting on the kitchen floor at 5am)





	The weights you drag along (and the ones I carry for you)

**Author's Note:**

  * For [telefool](https://archiveofourown.org/users/telefool/gifts).



> Hello!! So, since I'm an indecisive fool, I pretty much merged both your prompts plus added some of my own aspects to it, I hope that's okay with you and that you enjoy how this came out :'')) 
> 
> I'm not sure what route the movie is gonna take regarding Eddie's backstory with his family, but for context: in the comics, Eddie has an older sister who eventually died of breast cancer
> 
> Edit (12.26): I've updated the fic so Venom is referred to as they/them. In the process, I also noticed I posted the unedited version of this fic, meaning it had many mistakes, so I apologize for anyone who saw that, it has been fixed now.

The sun isn’t even up when Eddie shuffles to the kitchen, scratching his stomach and yawning. Venom emanates grumpiness in his head, which Eddie would say is very unfair and uncalled for, considering they aren’t the one who need sleep to begin with. To that thought, Venom makes an annoyed noise that was probably meant to be some strong grumbling, but it comes out as a loud scrapping noise in the base of his skull instead.

Message taken.

“Grumpy old man,” Eddie mumbles as he peruses the items in his fridge. The action takes more time than it should, simply because Eddie spends a full minute staring with bleary eyes at nothing in particular. It’s what he gets for being up so early.

**_There’s nothing important to do this morning, Eddie, I even checked your brain twice to make sure. Why are we up?_ **

“I wanted to decoh—” He trails off into a long yawn, blinking some tears from his eyes. “Decorate cookies.”

**_Do that later._ **

“I can’t, I still need to find some gifts before we head out to Annie’s this afternoon.” When Venom made another noise in complaint, Eddie raised a scolding index finger in the air. “Ah, ah, none of that! This is your fault too because you wouldn’t let me go to the store before!”

**_I don’t know who Mariah Carey is, but I will eat her once I find her, Eddie._ **

“Says the one who sung _All I want for Christmas_ for 5 hours uninterruptedly when I finally got a day off.”

**_Everyone has a limit._ **

“I have no sympathy for a criminal,” Eddie deadpanned, followed by the crack of an egg.

Some of it got on Eddie’s hand as he cracked another one into a bowl, so Eddie made a disgusted face at it, while Venom tried to sneakily get to the egg slime. Eddie watched with amusement as a tendril peeked from under the sleeve of his hoodie and slithered up his hand. Eddie shook his hands violently to rid of the remains of the egg.

**_This is why no one likes you, Eddie._ **

“You know you love me.”

**_I do, but it’s the principle of the thing._ **

Eddie laughed, smile lingering on his lips even after it. Despite the early hour and the sleep still lingering at the edges, Eddie felt comfortable in the environment. Christmas was a bag of conflicting emotions to Eddie, but Anne had made him appreciate it more, and his sister as well, long before that.

And now it was his first Christmas with Venom. Eddie rubbed at his chest affectionately, hearing the usual appreciative rumble respond back to him. It’s comforting to have it, especially after the memory of his sister comes up. Eddie’s hand gets a little heavier with it, but the smile hasn’t disappeared yet. In fact, he was sure Mary would’ve liked—

**_You have an interesting taste in decoration. Different from the television._ **

Eddie startles at the sudden interruption, his hand jerking and getting a dollop of pancake batter on his cheek, to Venom’s loud laughter. Eddie rolls his eyes. “Not decoration, this is breakfast. C’mon, buddy, I thought you’d be able to recognize pancakes by now.” Eddie pointedly gestured to the carton of milk, eggs and the flour.

**_Don’t treat me like an idiot, that’d be you. Dumbass._ **

“Cranky because I interrupted your rest with my ‘loud, awake thoughts’, aren’t you?” Eddie teased in the most annoying tone of voice he was capable of doing.

**_Don’t use meme talk on me, that’s my job._ **

“Fine, fine, geez. Territorial much.” Eddie sighed, but, because he’s a smitten fool, held up the whisker once he was done with it to let Venom happily lick at it.

Which they did, materializing before Eddie even raises the object all the way up, like they were waiting for this the entire time. Venom was being obnoxiously loud too, the asshole.

**_Your asshole._ **

“Yeah, yeah.”

Thankfully, both of them went quiet after that; Venom, now materialized, watched the food over his shoulder, sometimes getting distracted by the light snow outside. Meanwhile, Eddie focuses on flipping more and more pancakes, until he a plate full with a pile that would be way too high for any other humans. Venom tries to steal them before they’re done many times, but Eddie always bats their tendrils away—though he isn’t fooling himself: Venom certainly got to the batter at some point, Eddie just didn’t catch them in the act.

Eddie’s pouring chocolate syrup over the pancakes under Venom’s watchful eyes when he feels a spike of curiosity in his gut that doesn’t belong to himself.

**_You’re surprisingly good at doing cooking stuff for someone like you, Eddie._ **

“I’d love it if you’d stop insinuating stuff about me all the time.” Eddie sighed. Then, he looked at the stool he left by the other side of the counter, the couch even farther away than that. Eddie shrugged and slid down: the  floor it is.

**_Eddie._ **

“Yes, sorry for ignoring you, buddy.” He wasn’t sorry at all, the pancakes tasted good and he was more preoccupied with shoving them into his mouth. “Can’t you, like—” he mumbled through a mouthful and gesture to his own head, “—look it up or something.”

**_I will eat all your breakfast, including the plate._ **

“Don’t be like that.”

 **_Memories are weird. I can’t see them clearly sometimes because you don’t remember it well, or they have too many_ ** **emotions _for me to understand it. Explain._**

“Oh, huh, that actually makes sense.” Venom faced him just to offer a hard stare. Rude. “Okay, then. Well, I mean, you kinda need to learn that stuff if you intend to live alone at some point. But…” He hesitated, fork frozen in midair as he furrowed his eyebrows. “My sister, Mary, she taught me first.”

The parts of Venom inside him swirled in discomfort, but they didn’t say anything. Eddie brushed it off, for now.

“She had too much work to do, without mom. It’s hard for a child to take care of the chores for a fully grown adult and another kid, after all. We fought all the time because of this, and other stuff too.” A coldness grew in his fingertips when saying that, but Venom was quick to warm the area. He smiled at the gesture and let that particular part for another conversation. “I just wanted to help her, I guess. It was only fair.”

**_Hmm. Okay. But there’s more that you’re not telling._ **

“There are a lot of details I’m not getting into, buddy, I don’t need some parts of this story on Christmas’ Eve, that’d just be a bummer.” He chews thoughtfully on a pancake. Well, it was only fair to say more, that was what people like them do, right? Lovers, he means. “It was a pain in the ass because we had to hide. Would stay up late at night just to cook something, then we’d get rid of all the evidence and go back to our rooms as silently as possible.”

Eddie still remembered how their shared labor brought them together, back then. Mary was a girl with a lot of personality and even more of a temper, strong willed—she was forced to be, taking the role of their mother in her absence. But, she was a genuine and kind girl.

Once she saw Eddie for who he was and not for what their father thought of him, they were inseparable. Thinking of the bright smile she'd have on her round face all the times he got a recipe right made his heart shrink, an old ache that he was sure wouldn’t go away.

There was that sense of discomfort from Venom again and, snapping to attention, Eddie rubbed a soothing hand on their head.

**_That makes no sense, why would you need to hide that?_ **

“Well, dad was… Complicated.” Venom snorted at that. “Yeah, I know, understatement. But he was a traditional man with strong beliefs, I guess. It’s why he left all the house chores to a little kid to begin with.”

**_Traditional?_ **

“Yeah. You’ve seen the stuff on the news, the stuff I’ve investigated before, right? All the fighting and the awfulness. That’s because us humans have weird traditions. Molds. So, the housework is for women, and that’s their duty. For men, that kind of work is undignified because, apparently, doing things associated with women is shameful or whatever.”

Eddie pushed memories about the matter towards Venom, just enough for context, careful not to just make things more confusing by giving too much too fast.

Venom stayed silent, but they were a little ball of confusion in Eddie’s mind. They thought for a long time before speaking up.

**_That’s really stupid._ **

“God, yeah, it is, it’s fucking ridiculous. It’s weird for us too, it’s why so many people are fighting to change it.”

**_How do you even determine who are the women and who are the men?_ **

“Most would say biology, which, can of worms. Others just make assumptions based on appearances and stuff. And then there are people who are neither of them, so the division makes even less sense.”

Venom perked up at the last sentence.

**_Humans are stupid, but it seems some of them have sense in them. To my race, all that matters is how strong you are._ **

“I mean, you guys are pretty much agender, right?”

**_Gender is stupid._ **

That was said with a hiss, so Eddie laughed and offered half his last pancake to calm them down. The symbiote gobbled it down in half a second, as expected.

“It is. But we have to live with it, for now. My sister hated it, got in constant fights with my dad as she got older. Even with us secretly splitting the chores, she had too many responsibilities. I think dad blamed me for that, her ‘rebelliousness’.” Eddie scratched the back of his neck, smiling bitterly. “Typical.”

Venom got closer so they could rest their head on top of Eddie’s, cold blackness running down his arm to make a hand, lacing their fingers together. It was endearing that Venom had picked up on how to comfort Eddie for moments like these. He leaned into Venom’s touch and passed along to them as much affection as his body was capable of conjuring—which was a lot.

**_Your sister sounds badass._ **

Not expecting the comment, Eddie laughed and almost choked on air. He coughed a few times before composing himself. “Yeah, she was.”

Eddie stopped to gather his thoughts, and in the process picked up on the faint uneasiness buzzing under his skin, like the discomfort from before but muted. He squeezed Venom’s hand tighter.

“You’re unhappy with this, though. This conversation. What’s wrong?” When the buzzing went down to a faint, barely there trickle of emotion, Eddie scrunched up his nose. “And don’t you dare try to hide now, I’ve been pouring my heart out, so now it’s your turn.”

Venom growls, but it’s halfhearted. They rub the side of their head on Eddie’s hair, something Eddie knew Venom liked to do to because it was relaxing to them.

**_This sister, the memories of her are all confusing. Good, but makes you sad. I don’t like it._ **

Eddie smiled, running a hand over the tendrils closest to his neck in apology. “Sorry, buddy, I know it’s something unusual to you. But, it’s like the good time with Annie, you know those memories?”

**_But you said you “got over” that. They don’t make you sad anymore._ **

“Yeah, but there’s no getting over a sibling,” Eddie said, quieter. “I’m glad I had her in my life at all, but I’d rather have her here, now. That I could still make her favorite cookies when she was sad, to laugh until our stomachs hurt. There’s no getting over that.”

Eddie could sense that his words only distressed Venom further, catching a stray **_“Eddie will be sad forever?”_**. He grimaced, cursing himself for not being more careful with his words.

“V, listen. If you had someone important, and then they were gone, would you rather forget them entirely or keep all the memories you have of them, even if it hurt?”

Venom paused, all of their emotions freezing, completely blank, deafening to Eddie’s mind. Venom moved down slowly, touching their forehead to Eddie’s with a tenderness uncharacteristic to them.

**_I’d remember them forever._ **

“There you go.”

**_I understand now._ **

Eddie kissed the corner of their mouth for long seconds. “I know you do.” They stay in silence for a minute, each digesting the moment they just had, Venom more so than Eddie. Then, when Eddie felt peacefulness fill him, he nodded. “Now c’mon, we still have cookies to decorate, Anne is gonna kill us if we show up with anything less than perfect cookies.”

Eddie rose with groan, knees cracking and back now making it very clear that it didn’t like his position on the floor. Oh well.

**_Hmm. We should take some of them to Mary, later._ **

Eddie tripped at the words, but recovered quickly enough. In a show of consideration, Venom didn’t laugh st him this time, which Eddie greatly appreciated. There was a lump growing in his throat, a heaviness in his chest, but he swallowed it all down before it could get any worse.

“Yeah,” he started, pausing at the crack in his own voice. He cleared his throat. “Yeah, she’d like that.”

**Author's Note:**

> I'll say more once the author is revealed, for now this is it folks ;)


End file.
